WARSAW – Poland's top human rights official on Thursday denounced a top court ruling that amounts to a near total ban on abortion, saying it imposes a severe limitation of women's rights and “condemns them to torture.” The constitutional court on Wednesday issued a justification of a controversial October ruling that bans abortions in cases of fetuses with congenital defects, even when they are so severe that there is no chance of survival upon birth.
That October ruling sparked weeks of mass protests, but until now it had not taken legal effect — though women's reproductive rights activists said hospitals were already canceling procedures, fearing recriminations from the authorities.